How in the heck do people reach adulthood and not know how to swim? Can you at least doggy paddle if you were to find yourself in the water for a few minutes/ seconds?!


All this talk of Washington state reminded me of a long forgotten nature memory. Saw a dude out at the Olympia training range who'd been bit on the eyeball by some kind of very painful ant (maybe fire ants if they had them out there?!). His eyeball was literally draining out a puss/snot looking fluid down his face and he got evac'd out of the training area. It was pretty badass. I knew him and saw him several times later on down the road. He had both eyes with fine vision. But at the time we were all sure the guy was gonna be a Nick Fury.

When I was a kid I took swimming lessons, and I failed.

Being in the southwest I was never around a lot of water to really practice swimming. Going to the public pool just wasn't a thing my mom wanted to do.

When I was in college and reckless, I found I had a talent for diving. I could dive into a pool and use the momentum from the dive to carry me from the deep end to the shallow end. Then I slipped and didn't dive and almost drowned. My friends thought I was joking around, so they didn't immediately help me out.

When I was in my 30s we lived in a place that had a pool in the backyard, so kids learned how to swim pretty well there. I got better at it, and could keep myself above the water and move around. However, I haven't really been near a pool for that kind of swimming in years, so I deeply question my current ability.

I also have a fear of murky water. If I can't see what's in there, I don't want to go in there. If I am fishing on a boat, no matter how deep the water is, I am wearing a life jacket.

Thanks for the answer. All makes sense.

This last point is one that just baffles me from some people. Good for you! Every year at least a few deaths on the Great Lakes or one of our many smaller lakes or rivers are form people not wearing a damn life jacket. Like you, I don't care if I was kayaking, fishing from our old 75HP outboard Mirrocraft (RIP Queen Marian!), or on a canoe, I wear a life vest. The only boats I've been on and not worn one were big commercial or military vessels, but I always knew where they were. And I swim fine. I was a lifeguard as part of my old wilderness guide job. But you hit your head, have some sort of unexpected medical event, whatever, and you die without a jacket. I've taken a LOT of stupid chances, but not with those.

I can swim, but the ocean make me sea sick, if I'm on a boat or even a ferry. If I'm in a boat on a lake I'm fine, go figure.

I am part fish.

I can swim, SCUBA and Snorkel.

Oh I can swim now, but at this point it's purely for survival. I have long held a fear of being underwater due to an unfortunate experience with a bully at a public pool when I was very young (he didn't even know me, he just randomly decided that I was a good target and held my head under the water until my sister came by and made him get off me), and I long avoided swimming since then, becoming a frequent source of anxiety from an early age. A few years ago my platoon decided we were going to do pool PT, and I begged them not to make me go in, though I was overruled because, "it's just the shallow end, you won't drown." Turns out I was so freaked out about swimming that I actually had a panic attack and nearly drowned in the shallow end. They finally let me leave and not have to do that again.

Well now that my kid is getting older and more impressionable, I decided I wanted to overcome this unnatural fear. So I started taking lessons, and I now know how to swim, but I still can't go under water which kinda sucks. But the fact that I can be in a pool and not immediately freak out is really comforting and I count it as a win.

I am not a great swimmer, I can manage to not kill myself. I get petrified when I can't touch the bottom. My parents got me swimming lessons when I was young but then never took me to a pool or anything like that. Doesn't make sense to me.

How does someone get bit by an ant on the eye?

As do I, though I haven't SCUBAd in years...before the back surgeries and rehabs, etc.

I sold a bunch of my SCUBA stuff, but kept enough that if by some miracle I end up getting into it again, I can use my own stuff.

I sold everything (Tank, BCD and Octopus) but my mask, weight belt, and fins a couple years back. Although my mask is closing in on 25 years old and it is showing its age, but I cannot find one I like more for snorkeling.

It has been 3 years since I managed to SCUBA. I was going to run my eldest through the JR course a few weeks ago while we were on Panama City Beach but she had a head-cold and that is a bad idea.

This explains so much. Change your name to Sahuagin.

That is a win. Congratulations.

Good for you that you were able to tackle that fear productively!

That is one of the many, many stories about school age bullying that shows how detrimental even isolated incidents can be to someone. Jesus, I am sure that little ####er had a parent or someone responsible for him, or there was an adult that saw it, etc, who could have stopped that as soon as it started. Doubt it was the first time the kid had done something like that.
I'm amazed at how many schools and even teachers will minimize kids doing crap like that in order to just avoid confrontation. So many people use the "oh, you can't consequent your kids anymore" or "oh, I could never say anything to someone else's kid if they were acting like that"...total bullcrap covering for their own weakness.

Yeah, now that I'm a parent I can't imagine how things will develop for my kid, but I know for sure he's not gonna do something like that to someone else without me making sure he understands how horrible that can be.

It's kinda crazy to think about though. It was one of the most traumatic things in my childhood, and one of the few things I can remember clearly. I was talking to my sister recently, and she didn't even recall the incident, much less realize how much I consider her to have saved my life. I bet that kid probably never thought about it again, I'm sure you're right and I was just another random kid he did that to. It's wild.

Also, is SCUBA always capitalized and I've been doing it wrong, or is this a bit?

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

SCUBA

Anyone can put words together...

Salamanders Cry Under Broken Airplanes